Adventures in Munchkinland: October 2008

A conversation with The Princess

Me: Let's call Grandpa Clover and wish him happy birthday.

Princess: Oh man! I thought today was Halloween and it would be dark outside!

Me: It will be dark later.

Princess: Will we go trick-or-treating when it's dark?

Me: We'll probably go a little bit before it gets dark.

Princess: How many minutes?

Me: It won't be minutes from now, it will be hours. We'll go trick-or-treating after dinner.

Princess: I have an idea! Let's eat dinner now! (It's 11AM).

Me: If we go trick-or-treating now, nobody will be home.

Princess: Why? Is everyone still asleep?

Collecting Party

The dog was acting particularly hyper yesterday, so The Princess and I decided to take her on a walk. The long way around our block is a full mile, so it's a pretty nice walk for all 3 of us.

The trees are finally starting to look fall-ish here, although most of them just kind of go brown and fall off the trees in a diseased-looking way. Some of the trees are beautiful shades of red and gold, however. The Princess decided we were on a "collecting party" and proceeded to pick up as many leaves as she could hold. We brought them home, and I took these pictures of them.

It's really cold here right now. The nights are almost freezing. It's supposed to stay that way through Halloween night and then warm back up to 70 on Saturday. I don't really think that's fair.

Repost: Our "Little" Family Portrait

Here's the most recent portrait of DH, The Princess, and me. From the same session as the "big" family portrait. One of these days, we'll figure out how to have a family portrait made while I'm not pregnant, so that all of our children can be physically seen in the portrait. :)

She doesn't look entirely thrilled to be here in this image, but it's very Princess-esque.A bit happier here. Ignore the vents in the background - they were edited out before being printed. And I soooo need a haircut! I'm currently debating going back to the pixie cut or growing it out. I definitely need to get my bangs cut, at least, but still looking for the right stylist who doesn't work too far away from home.

Reposting the Evolution of Our Family Portrait

I just realized that I can copy the posts from my old blog and repost them here. I really like some of those old posts, so I'll probably work on reposting over the next few days.

S and E were married in February. While Bry, his wife and the twins and my parents were in town, S's friend agreed to subject herself to the chaos of creating our family portrait, since I still haven't mastered the art of the self timer. My aunt and uncle graciously agreed to let us use their new house as a studio space.

The twins were really well behaved, but The Princess is sooooo not into having her picture taken when she knows it's what everyone wants her to do. Here are the various outtakes from family picture day, as well as the final family portrait. Several of them would have been the "keeper" if The Princes wasn't such a photographer's child. :)

First, the outtakes...

And here's the keeper...

Really Big Frogs

When we were at the garden on Monday, we came across a little pond with some REALLY big lily pads. The first thing The Princess said when she saw them was, "Whoa, those must be for some REALLY big frogs."

I tried to take this picture at an angle to give perspective to how big the lily pads were. You can kind of tell, but they were ginormous. They were probably big enough for two people to sit on (if people could actually sit on lily pads, of course).

The "official" 5-year-old portraits

We took The Princess to a local garden for her birthday since the museum we were planning on taking her to was closed (go figure). While we were there, I decided to take her five-year-old portraits. Maybe I'll actually have some of them printed this time instead of just leaving them on my hard drive.

She's still at the age of the unnatural cheeser grin. So if she looks sad in these, it's because I was asking her to give me a more "natural" expression. Her current idea of a "smile" for the camera is to open her mouth as wide as it will go and close her eyes as tightly as possible - not very attractive for a portrait.

LeeLou Blogs

This is my FAVORITE site for blogger layouts. They're so stinkin' cute. She's having a launch party starting next Monday with lots of giveaways. One of the requirements for the giveaways is to have this link button in a post on your blog. So I'm linking away. Go check out her blog designs - they're free and super cute!!

My baby turned 5 today!

I'm so not ready for this! I swear she just learned how to walk, and I was waiting impatiently for the day that she could speak in sentences (now I occasionally wish she would be quiet for just a few minutes).

I love my little Princess so very much! She frustrates me at time, but I wouldn't give up one minute of the time I've been privileged to spend with her.

She's definitely a little girl now, and no longer a baby, but I suppose that's the way it's supposed to be. She amazes me with her amazing ability to comprehend what's going on around her, her sympathetic and compassionate nature, and her crazy photographic memory. I can't wait (well, yes, I can) to see how much she grows and changes in the next 5 years.

These days, she loves to sing, dance, and do any form of arts and crafts. She's waiting impatiently for the day that mommy and daddy can afford to put her in a dance class (I just need to get some portrait clients *sigh*). She loves her baby sister with all her heart, and she helps me take care of her any way I'll let her.

She knows all the letters of the alphabet and can write them all down. She can read a few words by sight, and she can also write her name as well as "mom" and "dad."

She's still very much a daddy's girl, but she loves mommy, too. She LOVES to have "adventures" outside, and would spend all day outdoors if it were possible (too bad mommy hates the sun and Sparky is a red-head who's too young to wear sunscreen).

I asked her a few questions today so that I could write them down to look at later.

It makes me happy when: It's my birthday and I got $5 in my birthday card. It also makes me happy when me and mommy and daddy talk about silly things.

It makes me laugh when: Daddy tickles me (and it's the most infectious laugh in the whole world!).

My favorite toy is: My birthday toys.

My favorite movie is: My "Pound Puppies" movie and "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything." I also still love "Finding Nemo."

When I grow up, I want to be: A pirate, a rock star, an artist, and a person that makes things (like stamps).

My favorite food is: Oranges.

My favorite colors are: Pink, purple, and green.

My favorite TV shows are: Batman, Spiderman, and Dora the Explorer

My favorite memory is: The time we went to the butterfly pavilion in Colorado.

Caramel Apples

The Princess and I went grocery shopping on Saturday, and it's the time of year when Kraft strategically places their bags of caramel near the apples in the produce section. She was already begging for apples, and when she saw the caramel, she managed to convince me that we *needed* caramel apples. I decided to comply.

So we made caramel apples last night. She stayed up WAY past her bedtime because we started too late and she couldn't sleep without tasting an apple. But it was the night before her birthday, and I'm a softie.

A lot of the images have a bit of a cross-processed look. It's on purpose. I think I've been watching too much SNL lately - it seems to be their favorite method of post processing the images of the host that they show during the commercial breaks. Anyway, I like how it looks, and I've been having fun playing with Michele Black's Photoshop actions.

We started too late to use the crockpot (to keep the temperature of the caramel below nuclear level and therefore safe for a preschooler to help with), so she didn't get to help with dipping the apples, but she had a lot of fun unwrapping all the caramels.

Yes, she really does pose like this. No, I don't prompt her to pose like this.

Trying to wait patiently for the caramel to finish melting.

The finished product. We didn't have any sprinkles (or "sparkles" as she calls them), so we had to settle for peanuts, instead.

I got the bright idea to cover the rest of the apples with chocolate. I somehow ruined the first batch of chocolate, and I gave up after the first batch of white chocolate didn't turn out, but they still look pretty yummy!

Michelle's Studio Pics

Here are the studio portraits that Michelle did for us while we were in Colorado. I'm so sorry if she ruined your backdrop, Michelle!

She should have one of those shirts...

You know, the ones that say "I did my own hair." The Princess is tired of having her bangs in her face, but she doesn't want them cut (I don't blame her - I wouldn't trust myself within a 2 mile radius of scissors and hair). So she's been spending a lot of time in the bathroom with clippies and spray bottles. Today I asked her if she wanted me to help her with her hair, but she's on a bit of an independent streak and didn't want any help. So this look is entirely her own. I just hope we can get all the clippies back in one spot at the end of the day.

Any time I take pictures of The Princess, she insists that we take a picture of her with Sparky, as well. She loves signing "I love you." My favorite is when we're at the gas station and I'm filling up the car. She'll knock on the window every time and sign "I love you" and then put her hands up on the glass until I sign it back.

Colorado

While The Princess, Sparky, and I were in Colorado visiting Grandma and Grandpa Clover, I had the privilege of meeting one of my long time online friends for a portrait session. It was so much fun to meet her, and she did such an amazing job on our portraits - especially considering the fact that a colicky 4-week-old is probably the worst possible subject for a portrait.

Of course it wouldn't be a real portrait session if The Princess didn't pull some faces.

I love these next two. I think I'll have them printed big.

This one cracks me up!

And I LOVE this one of The Princess. Since it wasn't mommy taking the pictures, she felt like she could be a bit more natural and give us some normal expressions.

I love this one, too. She loves her little sister so much!

I'll post some of the studio portraits tomorrow. Thanks again, Michelle. We all had such a great time, and your house is gorgeous!